Part 16

From thence they sailed along the coast of America to Behring’s Straits, in passing through which they observed that both continents were visible at the same time. The expedition having in vain traversed the polar seas in search of a north-west passage, returned towards the south. Before issuing through the belt of the Aleeootskian Islands into the Pacific, Captain Cook remained some days at Onalaska, where Ledyard was engaged in an adventure highly characteristic of his intrepid and chivalrous disposition. Even on their first landing, many peculiarities in the appearance and costume, no less than in the moveable possessions of the people, strongly excited their curiosity; for it was at once perceived that there existed two races of men upon the island, of which one might be supposed to be aboriginal, while the other might be presumed to be adscititious; an offshoot, in all probability, from the great Asiatic stock. They were in possession of tobacco, and in many instances wore blue linen shirts and drawers. The circumstance, however, which excited most surprise was the appearance of a young chief, bearing with him a cake of rye-meal newly baked, and containing a piece of salmon seasoned with pepper and salt, as a present to Captain Cook. He informed them, by signs, that there were white strangers in the country, who had come, like them, over the great waters in a large ship.

This information excited in Cook a desire to explore the island. It was difficult, however, to determine in what manner the object was to be effected. An armed body would proceed slowly, and might, perhaps, be cut off,—an irreparable loss to the expedition. The risk of a single individual would be imminent, but his movements would be more rapid; and if he should fall, the loss to the public would not be great. Yet, as the commander did not think himself justified in ordering any person to undertake so perilous an enterprise, a volunteer was sought for; and Ledyard presented himself. The great navigator was highly pleased with this example of intrepidity, for the brave always sympathize with the brave; and after giving the traveller instructions how to proceed, “he wished me well,” says Ledyard, “and desired I would not be longer absent than a week, if possible; at the expiration of which he should expect me to return. If I did not return by that time, he should wait another week for me, and no longer.”

The young chief who brought Cook the rye-cake and the salmon, with two persons who attended him, were to serve as guides on the occasion. Being furnished with a small quantity of bread and some brandy in bottles, intended for presents to the Indians, our traveller departed with his Indian guides, and during the first day advanced about fifteen miles into the interior. About nightfall they arrived at a small village consisting of about thirty huts, some of which were large and spacious, though not very lofty. These huts were composed of a slight frame erected over a square hole sunk about four feet into the ground. Below the frame was covered with turf, which served as a wall, and above it was thatched with grass. Though the whole village, men, women, and children, crowded to see him, it was not with the intense curiosity which their behaviour would have exhibited had they never before beheld a white man. Here they passed the night.

Their course had hitherto lain towards the north, but they next morning turned round towards the south-west. About three hours before night they reached the edge of a large bay, where the chief entered into a canoe, with all their baggage, and intimating to Ledyard that he was to follow his other companions, left him abruptly, and paddled across the bay. Although rendered somewhat uneasy at this movement, he proceeded along the shore with his guides, and in about two hours observed a canoe making towards them across the bay. Upon this they ran down to the water’s edge, and, by shouting and waving bushes to and fro in the air, attracted the attention of the savages in the canoe. “It was beginning to be dark,” says he, “when the canoe came to us. It was a skin canoe, after the Esquimaux plan, with two holes to accommodate two sitters. The Indians that came in the canoe talked a little with my two guides, and then came to me, and desired I would get into the canoe. This I did not very readily agree to, however, as there was no place for me but to be thrust into the space between the holes, extended at length upon my back, and wholly excluded from seeing the way I went, or the power of extricating myself upon an emergency. But as there was no alternative, I submitted thus to be stowed away in bulk, and went head foremost very swift through the water about an hour, when I felt the canoe strike a beach, and afterward lifted up and carried some distance, and then set down again; after which I was drawn out by the shoulders by three or four men; for it was now so dark that I could not tell who they were, though I was conscious I heard a language that was new. I was conducted by two of these persons, who appeared to be strangers, about forty rods, when I saw lights and a number of huts like those I left in the morning. As we approached one of them, a door opened and discovered a lamp, by which, to my great joy, I discovered that the two men who held me by each arm were Europeans, fair and comely, and concluded from their appearance they were Russians, which I soon after found to be true.”

By these Russians, who had established themselves in Onalaska for the purpose of collecting furs for the markets of Moscow and Petersburg, Ledyard was received and entertained in a most hospitable manner; and when he returned to the ships was accompanied by three of the principal persons among them, and several inferior attendants. “The satisfaction this discovery gave Cook,” says he, “and the honour that redounded to me, may be easily imagined; and the several conjectures respecting the appearance of a foreign intercourse were rectified and confirmed.”

From Onalaska the expedition sailed southward for the Sandwich Islands, and in two months arrived at Hawaii. On entering a commodious bay discovered on the southern coast of the island, they observed on each hand a town of considerable size, from which crowds of people, to whom the appearance offered by the ships was totally new, crowded down to the beach to receive the strangers. Their number was prodigious. No less than three thousand canoes, containing at least fifteen thousand men, women, and children, were crowded in the bay; and, besides these, numbers sustained themselves on floats, or swam about in the water. “The beach, the surrounding rocks, the tops of houses, the branches of trees, and the adjacent hills were all covered; and the shouts of joy and admiration proceeding from the sonorous voices of the men, confused with the shriller exclamations of the women, dancing and clapping their hands, the oversetting of canoes, cries of the children, goods afloat, and hogs that were brought to market squeaking, formed one of the most curious prospects that can be imagined.” Yet, amid all this vast multitude, no signs of hostility, no disposition to insult or annoy the strangers appeared. Both parties were very far at that moment from anticipating that tragical event which shortly afterward died their shores with blood, and rendered the name of Hawaii memorable in the history of discovery.

However, for the first few days extraordinary harmony prevailed. Visits were made and returned; fireworks were exhibited by the English; wrestling, boxing, and various other kinds of athletic exercises by the savages. During this continuance of good-humour Ledyard obtained permission to make a tour in the interior of the island, for the purpose of examining the nature of the country, and of ascending, if possible, the peak of _Mouna Roa_, which, though situated in an island not exceeding ninety miles in diameter, is regarded as one of the loftiest in the world. He was accompanied by the botanist and gunner of the Resolution, and by a number of natives, some as guides, others to carry the baggage. Admonished by the snows which glittered in dazzling pinnacles on the summit of Mouna Roa, they provided themselves with additional clothing to guard against the effects of a sudden transition from the heat of a tropical sun to intense cold. Their road during the first part of the journey lay through enclosed plantations of sweet potatoes, with a soil of lava, tilled in some places with difficulty. Here and there, in moist situations, were small patches of sugar-cane; and these, as they proceeded, were followed by open plantations of bread-fruit trees. The land now began to ascend abruptly, and was thickly covered with wild fern. About sunset they arrived on the skirts of the woods, which stretched round the mountain like a belt, at the uniform distance of four or five miles from the shore. Here they found an uninhabited hut, in which they passed the night.

Next morning, on entering the forests, they found there had been heavy rain during the night, though none of it had reached them at the distance of about two hundred yards. They traversed the woods by a compass, keeping in a direct line for the peak; and, finding a beaten track nearly in their course, were enabled on the second day to advance about fifteen miles. At night they rested under the shelter of a fallen tree, and early next morning recommenced their journey. It was soon discovered, however, that the difficulties they had hitherto encountered were ease itself compared with those against which they were now to contend. To persons unaccustomed as they were to walk, a journey of so great a length would, under any circumstances, have been a grievous task. But they were impeded in their movements by heavy burdens; their path was steep, broken, and rugged; and the farther they proceeded the more dense and impenetrable did the thickets become. At length, it became evident that the enterprise must be abandoned; and with those unpleasant feelings which accompany baffled ambition, they returned by the way they had gone to the ships.

In less than a fortnight after their arrival at Hawaii, the discoverers, by their impolitic, or rather insolent behaviour, had contrived to irritate the savage natives almost to desperation. They saw themselves and, what perhaps was more galling, their gods treated with silent contempt or open scorn; while their wives and daughters were contaminated by the brutal lusts of the sailors. How far these circumstances were within the control of Captain Cook, or, in other words, to what degree of blame he is liable for what took place, it is not our present business to inquire. But assuredly, unless we choose wholly to reject the testimony of Ledyard, our great navigator seems, during the last few days of his life, to have been urged by a kind of fatality into the commission of actions highly despotic and unjustifiable in themselves, and, under the circumstances in which they were performed, little short of insane. The mere idea of converting the fence and idols of the morai—objects sacred to them, however contemptible in our eyes—into firewood, argues a reprehensible disregard of the feelings of the natives. His offer of two hatchets to the priest in payment reminds one of Captain Clapperton’s promise of a couple of guns, a few flasks of powder, and some rockets to Sultan Bello, as the price of his _putting down_ the slave trade. But when the priest refused the proffered payment, not so much on account of its preposterous inadequacy,—of which, however, savage as he was, he must have been fully sensible,—because in his eyes no price was an equivalent for articles to destroy which would be sacrilege, to proceed with a strong hand in the work of destruction, profaning the spot which contained the ashes of their ancestors, and throwing down and bearing away the images of their gods;—this was an outrage which the tamest and most enslaved race would have found it difficult to endure.

However, force was triumphant; but from that moment the souls of the natives were on fire, and revenge was determined on. A relation of the various incidents and small events by which the tragic action moved onwards to its completion would be incompatible with my present design. Captain Cook, accompanied by an armed force, in which Ledyard was included, went on shore for the purpose of making the king a prisoner, and of keeping him in confinement on board, until certain articles stolen by his subjects should be restored. The savages, with a boldness worthy of admiration, opposed his designs, and compelled him to retreat towards his boats. Here, as the marines were endeavouring to embark, a contest took place; stones were thrown by the natives; the English flew to their firearms; and a chief, rushing on with an iron dagger in his hand, stabbed Cook through the body. His guards, likewise, were all cut off excepting two, who escaped by swimming. The cannon of the Resolution were now fired at the crowd, and this produced an almost instantaneous retreat; though the savages, mindful even in the midst of danger of the gratification of their appetite, took care to carry along with them the bodies of their fallen enemies, in order, by feasting upon them at their leisure, to derive some trifling comfort from their disaster.

The business now was to retire as quickly as possible from the island, which they did; and having again entered Behring’s Strait, and sailed about for some time among the ices of the Polar Sea, they returned by way of China and the Cape of Good Hope to England, after an absence of four years and three months.

In 1782 Ledyard sailed on board an English man-of-war for America, not with a design to serve against his country, but determined on seizing the first occasion of escape which should offer itself. An opportunity soon occurred. On arriving at Long Island, then in the possession of the English, he obtained permission of seven days’ absence from the ship, for the purpose of seeing his mother, who then kept a boarding-house at Southold, occupied chiefly by British officers. “He rode up to the door, alighted, went in, and asked if he could be accommodated in her house as a lodger. She replied that he could, and showed him a room into which his baggage was conveyed. After having adjusted his dress he came out, and took a seat by the fire, in company with several other officers, without making himself known to his mother, or entering into conversation with any person. She frequently passed and repassed through the room, and her eye was observed to be attracted towards him with more than usual attention. He still remained silent. At last, after looking at him steadily for some minutes, she deliberately put on her spectacles, approached nearer to him, begging his pardon for her rudeness, and telling him that he so much resembled a son of hers who had been absent eight years, that she could not resist her inclination to view him more closely. The scene that followed may be imagined, but not described; for Ledyard had a tender heart, and affection for his mother was among its deepest and most constant emotions.”

He now visited his old friends and many of the places which youthful recollections rendered dear to him. He was everywhere well received, and employed the leisure which he now enjoyed for several months in writing an account of his voyage round the world with Captain Cook. But when this was done, many motives, among which want of money was not the least, urged him to enter upon some new plan of life. His favourite project at this time, and indeed throughout the remainder of his life, was a voyage of commerce and discovery to the north-western coast of America; and during the remainder of his stay in his native country he made numerous efforts to obtain wealthy co-operators in his design. Being constantly disappointed, however, he once more turned his thoughts towards Europe, where the spirit of speculation was bolder and more liberal, and proceeded to France. Here his projects were eagerly patronised, and as easily abandoned; and during a long stay both at L’Orient and Paris he subsisted by shifts and expedients, associating by turns with every variety of character, from Jefferson down to Paul Jones.

How he existed at all, unless upon the bounty of his friends, is altogether inexplicable. He was now reduced to the character of a mere adventurer, and his life during this period affords no incidents worthy of being described. An Englishman, who had given him fifteen guineas at St. Germain, shortly afterward invited him to London, and procured him a passage in a ship bound for the Pacific Ocean, with a promise from the captain that he would set him on shore upon any point of the north-west coast which he might choose. He now once more appeared to be verging towards the accomplishment of his dearest wishes. He embarked; the vessel sailed down the Thames, and put out to sea; but before they were out of sight of land the ship was brought back by an order from the government, and the voyage was finally abandoned.

Ledyard’s enthusiasm, however, in the prosecution of his designs, though it is probable that few could perceive the advantages to be derived from their accomplishment, procured him many friends in London; and it is said that a subscription was set on foot by Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Hunter, Sir James Hall, and Colonel Smith. From the result of this measure we must inevitably infer one of two things,—either that the liberality of those gentlemen was exceedingly scanty, or that their opinion of Ledyard’s prudence was very low. From several circumstances which afterward took place the latter is the more probable inference. Be this as it may, we find him, on his arrival at Hamburgh, with no more than ten guineas in his pocket; and these, with reckless and unpardonable absurdity, he bestowed upon a Major Langhorn, an eccentric vagabond, who, after accepting his money and reducing him to beggary, coolly refused to bear him company on his journey to Petersburg, alleging as his excuse that he could travel _in the way he did_ with no man upon earth. What his mode of travelling was I have no means of ascertaining; but from his conduct in this transaction it may be inferred, without any great stretch of uncharitableness, that Ledyard was fortunate in getting rid of such a companion at the expense of all he was worth in the world. The man who is insensible of a generous action could be no desirable companion in any circumstances of life; but to be linked with such an individual in traversing a foreign land would have been a curse which few who have not experienced a similar calamity can conceive.

Having at the same time bade adieu to his money and the graceless major, he began to experience the effects of his folly; for had he not, by singular good fortune, found a merchant who consented to accept a bill on a friend in London, and pay him the amount, his travels must have terminated where he was. This supply, however, enabled him to pursue his route.

On arriving at Stockholm, Ledyard found that the Gulf of Bothnia was neither sufficiently frozen to enable him to cross it upon the ice, nor yet free enough from ice to be navigable. Under these circumstances he formed the daring resolution of travelling round the gulf, a distance of twelve hundred miles, “over trackless snows, in regions thinly peopled, where the nights are long, and the cold intense,—and all this to gain no more than fifty miles.” Accordingly, he set out for Tornea, in the depth of winter, on foot, with little money in his pocket, and no friends to whom he could apply when his small stock should be exhausted. Of this part of his travels no account remains. Other travellers who have visited Tornea in winter, under the most favourable circumstances, describe in tremendous colours the horrors of the place. “The place,” says Maupertuis, “on our arrival on the 30th of December, had really a most frightful aspect. Its little houses were buried to the tops in snow, which, if there had been any daylight, must have effectually shut it out. But the snow continually falling, or ready to fall, for the most part hid the sun the few moments that he might have showed himself at midday. In the month of January the cold was increased to the extremity, that Reaumur’s mercurial thermometers, which in Paris, in the great frost of 1709, it was thought strange to see fall to fourteen degrees below the freezing point, were now down to thirty-seven. The spirit of wine in the others was frozen. If we opened the door of a warm room, the external air instantly converted all the air in it into snow, whirling it round in white vortices. If we went abroad, we felt as if the air were tearing our breasts to pieces.”

Such was the country through which Ledyard made his way to Petersburg, which he reached on the 20th of March, that is, within seven weeks from his leaving Stockholm, making the distance travelled over about two hundred miles per week upon an average. Here he was well received by Professor Pallas and other scientific men; and through the interest of Count Segur, the French ambassador, obtained the empress’s permission to traverse her vast dominions. As he was compelled to wait several months, however, for this indispensable document, and was destitute on his arrival at Petersburg of money, and almost of clothes, he drew a bill of twenty guineas on Sir Joseph Banks, which he was fortunate enough to get some one to discount. This enabled him to await the leisure of Catharine, who was too deeply plunged in her schemes of debauchery and ambition to afford a thought on a poor houseless wanderer like Ledyard. But at length the passport was granted; and a Dr. Brown happening at that moment to be proceeding with a quantity of stores to Yakutsk for the use of Mr. Billings, who was then employed by the empress in exploring the remoter parts of Siberia and Kamtschatka, our traveller obtained permission to accompany him.

They left Petersburg on the 1st of June, and in six days arrived at Moscow. Here they hired a kibitka, and proceeded at the same rapid rate towards Kazan, on the Volga, where they remained a week; and then set off on the full gallop for Tobolsk. It should be remarked, that Ledyard’s object in this journey was not to see the country, but to reach the north-west coast of America, where he hoped to make some useful discoveries, as quickly as possible; otherwise it would have been far wiser to have “made his legs his compasses,” at the risk of consuming years in the journey. In the vast plain which stretches from Moscow to the Ural Mountains there was, it is true, very little of the picturesque, and not much of the moral, to captivate the eye or interest the mind of a traveller; but there is no country the careful examination of which may not be made to yield both amusement and instruction. Ledyard, however, was not answerable for the rapidity of his movements; he accounted himself but too happy in being allowed to share Dr. Brown’s kibitka; and had it been in the empress’s power to have darted him across Siberia upon an iceberg, or astride upon a cloud, he would not have objected to the conveyance.